1. Technical Field
This invention relates to transport assemblies and, more particularly, to a manually-operable coupling assembly for rolling a series of wheeled chairs along a ground surface.
2. Prior Art
Chairs are among the oldest useful articles of man and are consequently known in an almost unimaginable number of forms. These forms are oriented not only to the basic purpose of sitting or comfortable sitting but also to the possibility of production costs and among others to the possibility of providing the chair with other objects such as arm rests or wheels for making the chairs portable in nature. When it comes time to moving a large quantity of chairs it is not uncommon to stack conventional chairs one on top of another, thus forming stacks that can be dragged or transported with a dolly between remote locations. This, however, is not a possibility with wheeled office chairs since the wheel assemblies at the bottom of these chairs precludes them from being stacked in by the method described herein above. Thus, if a person desires to move a large number of these chairs, they are required to push, carry or pull them, one at a time between the remote locations.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,942,813 to Dombroski discloses a wheeled device for attachment to furniture legs. The device has a lifting surface in a channel which fits under a horizontal furniture leg crosspiece and which upon rotation of the wheels under the crosspiece elevates the furniture leg(s). Unfortunately, this prior art example fails to provide an assembly able to attach to and transport a series of wheeled chairs.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,081,199 to Blodee discloses a seating structure for a chair grouping includes a frame with a lower U-shaped front runner for each chair and a separate side frame member extending upwardly from the top of the runner at each side and rearwardly about the back cushion. For in-line chair arrangements, the side frame members extend downwardly at the center of the chair back and are connected to U-shaped rear runners of adjacent chairs. For zig-zag chair arrangements, the side frame members extend rearward of the chair back to provide for a row of oppositely facing chairs and thence downwardly where they are connected to U-shaped front runners of the opposed chairs which are staggered relative to the first chairs. The side frame members are interchangeable, as are the runners; and they are connected together by means of an H-shaped connector which also serves to connect the seat of the chairs to the frame. Unfortunately, this prior art example fails to provide a means of effectively transporting pieces of furniture.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,002,337 to Engel discloses stackable chair with a leg frame on which a seat and back are mounted. The leg frame comprises two lengths of flat tubing of dumb-bell shaped cross section bent to provide contiguous parallel portions which extend centrally transversely of the seat, portions extending from the ends of the parallel portions toward corner regions of the seat and portions bent downwardly to form the legs which are substantially in a vertical fore-and-aft plane but incline forwardly and rearwardly. When the chairs are stacked the legs of dumb-bell cross section nests with one another. The seat has a width substantially equal to the overall width of the leg frame and has cut-out corner regions to accommodate legs of superposed chairs when stacked. Plastic gliders at the bottom of the legs have support portions extending up along the legs for supporting superposed stacked chairs. The seat and back are mounted on the leg frame by two like supporting and connecting members at opposite sides of the chair, which also have provision for attaching an arm by a single screw or bolt or attaching a linking element for connecting chairs side by side in a row. The linking element is reversible so that it can be mounted with flat connecting lugs on the element directed either up or down. Unfortunately, this prior art examples fails to provide a means of transporting multiple pieces of wheeled office furniture.
Accordingly, a need remains for a manually-operable coupling assembly for wheeled office chairs and the like in order to overcome the above-noted shortcomings. The present invention satisfies such a need by providing an assembly that is convenient and easy to use, is durable yet lightweight in design, is versatile in its applications, and provides users with a quicker and more efficient means of rolling a series of wheeled chairs along a ground surface.